Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step) on the podium after winning stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia

(Roberto Bettini)

Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) stands on the podium after stage 3, clad in the maglia rosa.

(AFP)

Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) is in the overall race lead after stage 3.

(Roberto Bettini)

They say that death and taxes are life's only certainties; they forgot to mention that a particularly flat stage of a Grand Tour held through the Dutch countryside is always going to end in a sprint. And so that eventuality occurred today, with Quick Step's Wouter Weylandt taking the stage in the Dutch city of Middleburg.

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But it didn't come in the circumstances expected for a bunch finish. Yesterday's stage was marred by crashes in the final kilometres, and today's journey suffered the same fate, a crash near the last 10 kilometres disrupting the sprinters' plans that were already punctuated by savage crosswinds and a long day in the saddle.

It gave Weylandt the perfect opportunity to take the biggest victory of his career, beating Graeme Brown (Rabobank) and Robert Förster (Milram) to the line. The Belgian had come under fire from team boss Patrick Lefevere earlier this season, but this win may go some way to keeping the sprinter in a job for 2011.

Weylandt benefited greatly from disorder in the final 10 kilometres of racing and the leadout work done by HTC-Columbia for André Greipel, who found himself in pole position for victory with the likes of Alessandro Petacchi missing from the front of the race courtesy of the crashes.

"It was a little bit dangerous [in the finale]," said Weylandt afterwards, referring to the last left-hand corner before the finish line. "I was thinking Greipel would go for it there so I immediately went through the middle of the corner." The tactic worked and Weylandt got the jump necessary to hold off Brown, who incidentally inherited the sprint classification lead.

Greipel was visibly angry following the stage, and took out his rage on the stage winner. “You didn't do anything at all, you rotten dumbass,” he said and threatened the Belgian with his fist, complaining that the Quick Step rider had not participated in the work in the front group.

Weylandt shrugged off the incident, saying, “He said a few nasty words to me, but he can't blame me for anything."

And if you thought you'd never see the overall leader of a Grand Tour on the front of a bunch chasing the group ahead, think again... Cadel Evans did the lion's share of the work in the final four kilometres in an attempt to limit the losses caused by the split that came after a crash in the final 10 kilometres.

Meanwhile, on the front of the leading group it was Evans' countryman, Adam Hansen, working hard to get his man, André Greipel, in position to contest the sprint; consequently, BMC Racing's leader finished 45 seconds in arrears of the winning time.

"With 10 km to go, I had done everything right, I put myself everywhere (to be safe) and was relaxed and there was no wind," Evans said. "Then, I came around a corner and the whole Sky team was on the ground. Guys were falling on top of me. Losing 40-some seconds to my competitors isn't something I wanted to give up."

Grepiel didn't really feature in the sprint after failing to find Hansen's wheel. The fate of the world champion was worse, as he lost his maglia rosa and valuable seconds to his GC foes.

Fans will therefore enjoy another blast from the past, with Alexandre Vinokourov inheriting the race lead courtesy of his presence in the front group over the closing kilometres. It adds fuel to his comeback from a doping suspension after winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège last month and heading into the Giro d'Italia as Team Astana's leader. He last led a major stage race in 2007 during that year's Dauphiné Libéré.

An even bigger surprise came in the form of Saxo Bank's Grand Tour debutante, Richie Porte, who now sits in second on general classification during his first year in the ProTour ranks. He'll be in a good position to take the overall lead when the team time trial restarts the 2010 Giro d'Italia in Savigliano.

Crosswinds create big cracks

The day's very early break of Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Jérome Pineau (Quick Step) and Tom Stamsnijder (Rabobank) took to the front after just two kilometres and spent the next 132km ahead of the field.

As expected, the stage was hit by crosswinds as the peloton made its way to Middleburg along roads running parallel to the North Sea. With approximately 70km remaining in the day's proceedings three distinct groups formed on the road, requiring vigilance from riders to avoid a repeat of yesterday's carnage and those with overall aspirations avoiding big time losses.

The scene was reminiscent of the third stage at last year's Tour de France, when Lance Armstrong infamously took advantage of a splintered peloton to turn on the gas in an attempt to put time into overall rival and teammate Alberto Contador. While the intra-team feuds were nowhere to be seen, the pace and pained expressions within the peloton certainly painted the picture.

And there weren't many faces hiding the fact that these bumper winds made for some tough racing. The numbers don't lie, either: the peloton had averaged 43.405km/h with 62km remaining.

At that point it appeared as though the day's big loser could be Damiano Cunego, the 2004 Giro d'Italia champion sitting in a group over a minute behind maglia rosa Cadel Evans with just under 50km remaining.

But il Piccolo Principe had the combined powerhouses of HTC-Columbia and Team Sky for company, and with Bradley Wiggins back in regular Team Sky colours - having shed his own maglia rosa after yesterday's crash-fest - the Brit was part of the effective chase, aiding the cause for his squad's two sprinters, Greg Henderson and Chris Sutton.

That chase was completed with about 35km of the 224km journey remaining, the stage set for an anticipated battle: Garmin-Transitions versus HTC-Columbia versus Team Sky. Another crash five kilometres later put a damper on Garmin's day however, with Christian Vande Velde holding his collarbone and the news coming through shortly after that he was forced to abandon the race.

It gave one of the Giro's favourite sons, Alessandro Petacchi, a better chance of regaining contact with the peloton following an enforced wheel change. However, the final regrouping wasn't forthcoming and Ale-Jet finished with the third group on the road that came in over eight minutes down on the winning time.

As the front group approached the beachfront it suddenly resembled a Team Sky parking lot, with five of the squad's riders, including Wiggins, checking their bikes after coming down in the incident. Sky's leader again the victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as was Evans and several Caisse d'Epargne riders. For the general classification hopefuls it was simply a case of minimising the losses on a day that provided more obstacles than the peloton would have wanted this early in the race.